ACQUISITION: Senator Riegle (donor no. 8321) donated his papers on December 20, 1994. An agreement of deposit between the Bentley Historical Library and the Genesee Historical Collections Center was signed January 5, 1995.

BIOGRAPHY

Donald Wayne Riegle, Jr., was born on February 4, 1938 in Flint, Michigan, to Donald Wayne Riegle, Sr., and Dorothy Grace (Fitchett) Riegle. His father was a sales representative for and officer of a successful Flint printing company (the Riegle Press) founded in 1924 by his stepfather, John L. Riegle (1887-1983). The latter, a 1905 graduate of Central High School, was born on a farm in Davison Township, served as Genessee County Commissioner of Schools from 1914 to 1923 and wrote a memoir, Day Before Yesterday (1971). In 1928, John married Bessie (Waterman) Smith, and he later adopted Donald Wayne Smith, her son by her first husband, Roy Tenny Smith. Senator Riegle represented the fifth generation of his family to have lived in the county. His mother was the daughter of a Canadian-born farmer who lived in Huron County, in the thumb of Michigan, who later worked for AC Spark Plug in Flint. Don Jr.’s political inklings, therefore, were undoubtedly formed by his family background.

Riegle was raised in the Dakota-Franklin neighborhood of Flint’s blue-collar east side. His Republican father had served as a non-partisan city commissioner from 1950 to 1952 and mayor of Flint from 1952 to 1954 under the weak-mayor charter. One time during his father’s tenure as commissioner, an unknown assailant blasted a shotgun through the family’s front window, indicating the danger of Flint politics. The son attended the Flint Public Schools, graduating from Central High School in 1956, where he served as President of the Student Council. He then went to Flint Junior College for a year and Western Michigan University for a year, before enrolling as a business administration major in the Flint College of the University of Michigan, from which he graduated with a B.A. in 1960 in Business Administration and Economics. Furthering his education, he went to Michigan State University, where he received an M.B.A. in Finance and Marketing in 1961 and was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, the honorary scholastic fraternity. Riegle then went to work for IBM in White Plains, New York. He entered the Graduate School of Business Administration at Harvard University in 1964 with the intention of pursuing the D.B.A. Degree, but his successful political activity prevented completion of the thesis requirement.

An opportunity to run for the U.S. Congress presented itself in early 1966. Running as a Republican in the heavily Democratic 7th District, Riegle defeated incumbent John C. Mackie by a vote of 67,690 to 58,226. He soon acquired a reputation as a maverick and received criticism for not following Republican policies. In 1968, the left-leaning magazine The Nation chose him as one of the two best congressmen of the previous year. The Flint-area UAW regional council and locals took the unusual step of supporting him in 1970. The liberal Americans for Democratic Action gave him, in 1972, a “liberal quotient” of 94 percent. Nevertheless, he still was able to get Republican support; in 1972, for example, the Ripon Society endorsed him. In each election up to 1972, he increased his percentage of the vote. In that year his share was more than 70 percent. The Nixon Presidential vote, in contrast, in the district was 54 percent.

In his first two Congressional terms, Riegle rapidly became known as a dove on Vietnam. In 1967, he organized a Vietnam study group with University of Michigan professors. In September 1969, he co-sponsored, with Rep. Paul McCloskey (R-CA), the first measure in Congress to repeal the unofficial declaration of war (the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution). This action resulted in a threat of censure by the local Republican Party. The Senate repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on June 24, 1970 and Nixon signed the legislation containing the repeal in January 1971. Riegle continued to press Nixon on his promise to end the war, despite all his obvious actions to the contrary.

In response to a suggestion from Readers Digest writer Trevor Armbrister, Riegle consented to write a book that intended to “portray the human side of Congress honestly and to reveal its inner workings.” The candor that Armbrister wanted would involve risk for anyone who might attempt such a book, yet Riegle wrote, in a narrative that takes the form of a diary, O Congress (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972). The book covers a year, from April 1971 to March 1972. Response to the book by reviewers and the public was generally favorable. O Congress spent five weeks on the New York Times best seller list and was published in paperback by Popular Library. It was widely read at the time by aspiring politicians.

Riegle went to the Republican National Convention held in Miami in August, 1972, in order to speak against Nixon’s bombing policy. However, he was denied access to the full platform committee and had to address a subcommittee which, in the words of Norman Mailer “had been scheduled late so as to keep him out of morning hearings which might get on TV prime time or newspaper deadline time.” Riegle impressed the author as “young and personable with blond hair which he wore at a generous enough length to reach his collar (Mailer, St. George and The Godfather, 127-130).” During his 1972 re-election campaign, Riegle not only refused to endorse the Nixon-Agnew ticket, he actively campaigned against it. In an historic footnote, the infamous Watergate break-in was to take place on June 17, 1972.

The Congressman’s criticism of Nixon’s Southeast Asia policy and his actions during the 1972 campaign inevitably led to his becoming a target of the President’s opprobrium. On February 27, 1973, Riegle left the Republican Party for the Democratic Party. He resigned his Appropriations Committee seat and was assigned by the Democrats to the bottom of the Foreign Affairs Committee. In 1974, he ran for re-election as a Democrat and won with 67 percent of the vote. His growing stature as a maverick captured attention. In that year, Time Magazine named him one of America’s top 200 leaders under the age of 45. Riegle felt a sense of vindication for his opposition to President Nixon when the Watergate scandal broke. Soon after Nixon fired special prosecutor Archibald Cox, Riegle gave a floor speech announcing that he was introducing a formal impeachment resolution for obstruction of justice and other criminal conduct.

In 1975, Senator Philip Hart (D-MI) announced his retirement with the end of his term in 1976. Riegle decided to pursue this office, and won the primary against four other candidates (including an upset victory over Secretary of State Richard Austin). In 1976, the Detroit News publicized an affair he had in 1969 with an unpaid staff member, who had taped their telephone conversations, but this newspaper’s attempt to influence the election failed. In the general election, Riegle won with 53 percent of the vote against U.S. Rep. Marvin Esch.

Senator Hart died on December 16, 1976, before the end of his term, and the Governor appointed Riegle on December 30, 1976, to fill out the remaining three days of Hart’s term.

With his business school background, Riegle was appointed in his first term to the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs (of which he was a member throughout his tenure); the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation (serving until 1988); and the Committee on Labor and Human Resources (serving until 1984). He was a member of the Committee on the Budget from 1979 to 1994 and the Committee on Finance from 1987 to 1994.

Riegle’s management and Republican Party background was unusual for a politician who enjoyed such a strong UAW backing, but this probably led him to find ways to support positions benefiting both auto industry management and labor. He was the chief Senate sponsor and led the fight for the Chrysler Corporation loan guarantee, averting a filibuster, during his first term. Industry-friendly positions on environmental and safety issues brought him criticism on the left from sources such as the New York Times and Ralph Nader, but Riegle gained a reputation as a hard-working senator supporting the needs of his constituents.

He established seven Michigan offices (Detroit, Flint, Lansing, Traverse City, Grand Rapids, Warren and Marquette), a far larger number than most senators had, in order to maintain a closer and direct relationship with his constituents. Riegle secured many Urban Development Action Grants for Michigan cities before the program ended.

As a Democrat, Riegle was in the minority party during Reagan’s tenure as President, and as a member of several economic committees, was a frequent critic of Reaganomics. Minority Leader Robert Byrd said of him: “He’s a good man to have in your front line. He knows how to mold the bullets and shoot them.” Riegle was chosen to deliver the nation-wide Democratic response to President Reagan’s address (October 14, 1982) on the economy with the full text printed in the next day’s New York Times.

Riegle tirelessly advocated for economic issues, especially those that might benefit Michigan. He led a successful fight against cuts in Social Security during the 1981-1982 session of Congress. He supported the position of the auto industry regarding Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) standards in 1991-1992. He successfully offered an amendment to a 1988 trade bill which attempted to increase American exports. He introduced legislation in 1991 which would attempt to increase exports to Japan.

Riegle was re-elected to a third Senate term in November 1988, with the largest vote total in history for a Democratic Senator in Michigan.

In January 1989, Riegle became chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. During earlier years on this committee, he had, as Chairman of the Consumer Affairs Subcommittee, shaped legislation on fair debt collection and consumers’ rights in electronic banking. Now, as Chairman of the full committee, his focus would be on the savings and loan crisis. Riegle led the Senate fight that enacted the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) of 1989, which created the Resolution Trust Corporation. This and other actions successfully ended the crisis.

The Senate Select Committee on Ethics began public hearings on November 15, 1991, continuing its preliminary inquiry that had begun two years earlier. Its purpose was to determine what Riegle and four other Senators (John McCain, John Glenn, Dennis DeConcini and Alan Cranston) might have done for Charles Keating and what the bankrupt owner of Lincoln Savings and Loan had done for them.

Keating’s former lobbyist, James Grogan, had told the committee in closed session on December 14, 1990, that it was his belief that Riegle had arranged an April 9, 1987, meeting on Keating’s regulatory problems. Riegle denied arranging the meeting. That meeting occurred shortly after a campaign fundraiser that Keating had sponsored for Riegle in Detroit on March 23, 1987 at Detroit’s Pontchartrain Hotel, then owned by Keating.

The Senate hearings later determined that Mr. Grogan’s belief was in error and that the regulatory meeting in question had actually been arranged by Senator DeConcini, as he himself testified.

While the Senate Ethics hearings were conducted in November of 1991, Riegle had in March of 1988 voluntarily and of his own initiative publicly returned all campaign contributions raised by Keating, out of concern for appearance of conflict of interest. Riegle was later re-elected that November to his third Senate term.

Despite Riegle’s denial of any wrong doing, the Ethics Committee rebuked all five senators for creating the “appearance of conflict of interest,” thereby ending their long investigation and formally dismissed Senators Riegle, McCain, Glenn, and DeConcini from any further inquiry.

Later that year the New York Times called for Riegle to step down as Banking Committee Chairman, but Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-ME) countered, noting that the Senate had passed a comprehensive banking reform bill under Riegle’s leadership that very month.

Senator Riegle served six years as Senate Banking Committee Chairman, being elected unanimously by the full Senate in 1989, 1991, and 1993. In 1994, he led the passage of the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking bill and the Riegle Community Development Banking Act, among other major legislative accomplishments during his tenure as Banking Chairman.

In his last years in the Senate, Riegle spent much of his time involved in trade issues and on Clinton’s health care reform efforts. The impending election, however, cast a shadow, with Republicans sensing a vulnerability that had not been there before. On September 29, 1993, Riegle announced that he would not seek re-election. He felt that without needing to campaign again, he could devote more time to health care legislation and opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) without being accused of any political motivation. He also cited an “increasing toll on family life.” After a long period of poor health, his father had died in 1992, and his mother in 1994.

Riegle supported labor’s NAFTA position in opposition to President Clinton, bringing back the reputation he had as a maverick when he opposed President Nixon on Vietnam. He felt that he needed to support Michigan’s auto workers, and he worked toward that end. He organized a controversial anti-NAFTA rally with Ross Perot on the steps of the state Capitol in Lansing on September 18, 1993. Ultimately, however, his effort failed, as Congress ratified NAFTA. Riegle supported the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and he cast his last vote in favor of ratification.

Riegle led the Banking Committee to investigate the Gulf War Syndrome, resulting from the first Gulf War, and on May 25, 1994, the Committee issued a detailed report. It identified the exact dates that the United States Executive branch had approved certain live biological agents for shipment to Iraq and that these may have shared some responsibility for the causes of the Syndrome. Riegle was portrayed by actor Brian Denehy in a mini-series, Thanks of a Grateful Nation, about the Syndrome, appearing on the Showtime Channel and NBC in 1998 and 1999. The full record of this investigation and its findings was published verbatim in the Congressional Record on May 25, 1994 and on October 7, 1994.

He was succeeded in January 1995 by Spencer Abraham, Republican. The Riegles moved to Traverse City in 1994 and later built a house in Birmingham, completed in 1998. He joined Shandwick Public Affairs, a public relations firm, as executive committee chair, and began an association with the Michigan State University School of Business as adjunct professor. In 2001, he joined another public relations firm, APCO Worldwide, as chair of its government relations department.

Among the many rewards he received, he once said that he was proudest of one that the Wolverine Bar Association gave him for having nominated more Federal judges of color than any other Senator in U.S. history. In the public arena, the Flint Jewish Federation established the Donald Riegle Community Service Award in 1990, in honor of the Senator’s efforts on behalf of Soviet Jewry, which continues to this present day.

Riegle remained active in presidential politics, actively supporting Senator Barack Obama in his successful effort to secure the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2008 and his subsequent elections in 2008 and 2012. In 2016, Senator Riegle publicly endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders at a major press conference in Flint on March 6, 2016, the date of the last Presidential debate with Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, two days prior to the Michigan Democratic Primary, when Sanders won a major upset victory.

Don Riegle married Lori Hansen of Reed City, Michigan, on May 20, 1978. Together they have two daughters. He had two previous marriages and is the father of three children from the first marriage.

ARRANGEMENT

When possible, the original scheme of organization has been followed. The Congressional series was reasonably well ordered when received. The Legislative subseries is organized by congress, then alphabetically by topic. The remainder of the Congressional subseries consists of folders in alphabetical order.

Riegle’s Senatorial files had largely been maintained by his staff. In general there was little organization to the original papers. In processing the collection, we have largely imposed order, following a scheme that seemed to be apparent in the first years of his office. This scheme arranges the Senatorial series into a large subseries, Legislative, which is divided chronologically by two-year Congress terms and then alphabetically by topic.

The Riegle Papers have been organized into two series, Congressional Papers and Senatorial Papers. Those two series are further divided into major subseries. The series and subseries are listed as follows:

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The papers in this collection reflect Donald Riegle’s service from 1966 to 1994 as U.S. Congressman and Senator. There is nothing from his years before his entry into politics in 1966 and nothing from the period afterwards. The papers from his Congressional years amount to 21 linear feet; those from his Senate years comprise 143 linear feet, which is of course the vast majority of the collection.

In a broad sense, most of the collection consists of memoranda, notes, reports, and similar materials, concerning pending legislation. Some concerns committee hearings and testimony. There are also files containing campaign and other political material, staffers’ files, and a certain amount that might be considered relating more to Riegle the person. This includes a manuscript of an unpublished book; his schedules, speeches, and records of his legislative activity. The collection also documents the activity of his liaison offices in Michigan.

In the Congressional series, the first listed is the Personal subseries. This contains correspondence resulting from the publication of his book O Congress in 1972. Other material concerns his dissertation proposal, fact-finding trips, and his break with the Nixon administration. The second subseries is Campaign/Political. Included here are detailed vote analyses of his early elections; materials for his early campaigns; a press log; issue statements; a record of legislation for which he was responsible; and speeches.

The next subseries is Topical/Miscellaneous. This contains files on a variety of topics and events, some of which may be legislative in nature, but more typically they concern general issues. This subseries contains Republican Party files as well as the District of Columbia Subcommittee files.

The subseries Seventh District Affairs contains files on issues in the Seventh Congressional District (especially Flint), such as CETA programs, the construction of I-475, and other Federal grants and programs. The subseries Co-Sponsored Resolutions and Rules consists entirely of House Resolutions and Rules that Riegle co-sponsored, arranged numerically, during the years 1971 and 1972.

The largest subseries within the Congressional series is Legislative. This contains files on every sort of legislation or issue, arranged by congress and then initially by committee (brief names, like “Appropriations” or “Budget”), but later by topic.

The Senatorial Papers are the largest series. Its largest subseries is Legislative, which is arranged chronologically by two-year congress and then alphabetically by subject. The subjects may be the names of bills or acts, of topics, or people. Every type of legislation appears in this series. Among the most significant are the Chrysler Corporation loan guarantee (1977-1978); the Comprehensive Energy Conservation Service Act (1977-1978); various issues relating to Social Security and the environment; and especially issues of concern to the automobile industry and to its employees, such as the Clean Air Act, Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In the last two congresses, Riegle and his staff worked on many health-related issues. Finally, this series contains many files on issues related to Michigan, such as military base closures and environmental issues. The number of issues is too lengthy to list here. The interested researcher should look in this series first because of its comprehensiveness.

The various committee subseries follow next. Each is arranged like the Legislative subseries, chronologically by congress and then alphabetically by topic. Most of the topics concern bills in the particular committees or hearings held by the committees or subcommittees. The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs subseries covers 1977 to 1994, including the years when Riegle was chairman. This includes files on many different bills or topics that this committee discussed, including trade bills, the Housing and Community Development Act, the Export Administration Act, and others, but the largest topic is the reform of the savings and loan industry. In Box 85 are files that narrate Riegle’s efforts in this regard, as well as his defense in response to the Ethics Committee’s allegations of impropriety.

The Committee on the Budget subseries runs from 1977 to 1994 and covers committee deliberations on budget proposals, including hearings. The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation subseries covers 1977 to 1988. Among other topics, it includes files on standards for the No-fault Motor Vehicle Accident Benefits Act. The Committee on Finance subseries (1988-1994) covers mostly taxation and trade issues, especially the United States/Canada Free Trade Agreement, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The Committee on Labor and Human Resources subseries covers 1977 to 1984 and includes a substantial number of files concerning the Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse.

Although legislation relating to Michigan can be found in the Legislative subseries and local grants and other issues in the subseries of the local offices, most Michigan-related issues are in the Michigan Affairs subseries.

These include the attempt to locate the Project Seafarer grid in the Upper Peninsula; wilderness and scenic rivers legislation; Autoworld, the Flint theme park development; various local grants; the closing of military bases; and issues concerning Native Americans.

Other subseries include other material. The Miscellaneous subseries (1982-1992) includes a record of Riegle’s schedule from 1989 to 1994; a “central” file, containing a variety of outgoing letters to senators, reports, and other material, from 1990 to 1992; a register of Federal grant assistance to Michigan for 1993; and a record of legislative assistants’ activities for 1991-1992.

The Personal subseries, from 1977 to 1994, is arranged chronologically by congress, and includes files on a variety of topics generally not included in the other subseries. One is the manuscript of an untitled book that Riegle wrote in 1992, dealing with economic policy. The rest of this series includes speech files, correspondence relating to personal appearances, and the like.

The Press Releases subseries, also from 1977 to 1994, is a log of press releases issued by Riegle’s office, arranged chronologically. The Topical subseries, arranged alphabetically by topic, consists of detailed lists of Riegle’s activity concerning bills on these topics. A typical file contains a record of amendments and measures that Riegle co-sponsored. It might also have copies of newspaper clippings relating to Riegle’s support of a particular bill or action on it.

The next subseries are the files from Riegle’s three Michigan offices. The Detroit Office files, from 1993 to 1994, contain some files on Empowerment Zone designations. The largest is the Flint Office subseries, dating from 1977 to 1994. This contains files on Urban Action Grants, on Autworld, on education, and on other community development projects. The Lansing Office subseries, from 1986 to 1994, contains, in addition to grant files for Mid-Michigan communities, files on Riegle’s hearings on the Gulf War Syndrome and on the anti-NAFTA rally in Lansing.

Finally, the Constituent Mail subseries, dating from 1977 to 1993, consists of 16 mm negative microfilm reels. Mail on various topics from constituents was microfilm in batches soon after being received. The batches are arranged by topic. Films are identified by film number and a set of numbers on the film boxes. Each film is in rough chronological order, but locating letters on a particular topic in a particular year will, of necessity, involve a search that first must guess at the approximate year. A look at further films will narrow down the year. Apart from the film number, which is the first number (on the left) that appears in the finding aid, the remaining numbers seem to be meaningless, even if many are more or less in order.

FOLDER LIST

CONGRESSIONAL PAPERS, 1966-1976

BOX 1

PERSONAL

Book (O Congress)

General concern, 1974

Individual citizen responses, 1972

Loved O Congress

1972-1973

(1 of 3)

(2 of 3)

(3 of 3)

1974

1975

1976

People who have read it, 1972

(1 of 2)

(2 of 2)

Publication, 1976

Publicity/scheduling, 1972

Substance/business, 1971-1973

Colleagues - Budget Committee, 1974

Correspondence

General

1969

(1 of 2)

(2 of 2)

1972-1976

Department of Defense, 1972-1975

Marcus Cohn, 1975-1977

Michigan officials, 1976

Michigan state representatives, 1972-1977

White House advisors, 1975

White House assistants, 1969-1972

Doctoral thesis proposal, 1968-1974

(1 of 3)

(2 of 3)

(3 of 3)

Interoffice memos, 1975

BOX 2

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous 1967-1974

94th Congress committee assignments, 1974

Boston Globe article, 1975

Committee on Committees, 1974

Economic Task Force, 1974

Fundraiser, October 1973

Inflation package, 1974

Los Angeles Times article and mail, 1974

Middle East trip, May 1975

Nader report - excerpt, 1972

Op-ed articles, 1973

Old passports, 1969-1978

Paris trip, 1974

Miscellaneous notes, 1976

Near east study mission, 1973

Notes to yourself, 1975-1976

Office staff, 1975

Request for information under Freedom of Information Act, 1975

Secret Service files, 1974

Speeches, 1970-1974

Speeches on monetary policy, 1976

Thank you letters, 1976

Vietnam

Break with administration, 1970

Kissinger meetings, 1969

Presentation to Nixon, 1968

Western European Union conference, 1974

CAMPAIGN/POLITICAL

AFL endorsement, 1976

Campaign, 1974

Campaign planning, 1975-1976

Campaign material for 1976, 1975

CIA abuses - intelligence agencies, 1976

Communications votes, 1976

Consumer information, 1976

Democratic Party

1976 politics, 1974-1975

Caucus, 1973

Florida, 1975

Michigan delegations, 1975

Missouri, 1974

Morley Winograd, 1973-1974

National

1973-1974

1975-1976

Demographic and election analysis,

1966-1968

(1 of 2)

(2 of 2)

1968-1969

(1 of 2)

(2 of 2)

1970-1973

(1 of 2)

(2 of 2)

BOX 3

District office, 1967-1968

District of Columbia, 1973-1975

Drugs - Heroin maintenance, 1976

Education groups – Riegle ratings, 1969-1972

Election of 1970, 1970

Electrical utilities, 1976

Energy paper, 1975

Equal employment, 1975

Eric’s energy paper, 1975

Family, 1976

Flint Journal articles – 1968 election, 1968

Food stamps, 1976

Foreign policy, 1976

General revenue sharing, 1974

Goldstein unemployment paper, 1976

Government reform, 1967-1976

Greek package, 1973-1975

Gulf of Tonkin resolution, 1969

Gun control votes, 1975

Health issues, 1976

House mass mailings, 1967-1969

House reform, 1976

International relations, 1976

Israel package, 1975-1976

Issue statements, position papers and bills that became law, 1974-1977